pneu*mat*ic (adjective)
1 : of, relating to, or using gas (as air or
wind):
a : moved or worked
by air pressure
b (1) : adapted for
holding or inflated with compressed air
(2)
: having air-filled cavities
2 : of or relating to the pneuma. spiritual
3 : having a well-proportioned feminine figure;
especially : having a full bust

fe*tish (noun)
1 a : an object of irrational reverence or obsessive
devotion
b : an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied
presence
is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification
and that is
an object of fixation to the extent that it may
interfere with
complete sexual expression
2 : a rite or cult of fetish worshipers

“Some enthusiasts favour inflation. It's cheap, simple and as near as your local filling station. But there's a very serious risk of being carried away, as many inflation writers have discovered. Many promising young ladies have exploded at the hands of the inflation addicts. That's if they haven't drifted away over the rooftops…”

A shocking state of affairs, to be sure, but largely apocryphal. Best as I've been able to determine, this issue went out sometime around September, 1995. At the time, popping stories were pretty much non-existent. Certainly there was a lot of talk about it, and writers would often hint that an explosive outcome was a possibility, but it never actually happened. The first popping stories wouldn’t appear until 1997.

The most commonly used keyword to tag stories on this site is “floating”. Second is “helium”. So clearly there’s some interest in the subject. It’s fairly common for people in inflation stories to be filled with helium to the point of becoming airborne. How much helium this requires varies widely from story to story.

So today we address the question: How much helium would it really take to make someone float?

Roughly 20 years ago I released my first inflation story, The Pageant. I can’t really nail down the exact date. The modified date on the file is November 8, 1995. It first appeared in Issue 4 of the Research and Development newsletter.

Voting is now open for Prose That Blows 11 - It's All About the Feels. You have until the end of Sunday, April 19th GMT to cast your vote. Links below have been updated due to the late addition of a story.